Rim-frame construction



- July 17, 1928.

D. S. STILES RIM FRAME CONSTRUCTION Filed Aug. 2, 192's ml' llh 1 34g 225/05 3 5/1765;

Patented July 17, 1928,

warren stares nausea earner errata;

DOUGLAS S. STILES, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOB T0 PREMIER CUSHION SPRING COMPANY, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, A COB?ORATION OF MICHIGAN.

RIM-FRAME CONSTRUCTION.

Application filed. August 2, 1923. Serial No. 655,191.

This invention relates to improvements in spring cushion formations, pertaining more particularly to the rim construction employed in connection with such formations.

lVhile the invention is applicable for use in constructions designed for various purposes, it is particularly applicable for use in producing the upholstery employed in connection with automobiles, and more particularly in connection with the production of the cushion seat structures employed in automobile service; because of this, the invention will be described more particularly in connection with this use.

Cushion seat structures of this type are generally formed with an upholstered top portion supported by a plurality of coiled springs, the lower turns of the latter being carried by whatis known as a rim strip as sembly, this assembly being arranged in such manner as to produce a substantially rigid frame of proper overall dimensions, the springs being located above the bottom plane of the assembly, and being arranged in suitable manner as to support the upholstery without the latter being shiftable to expand the springs. In order to cover the spring Zone, the seat structure carries, at I least on its forward'edge, a flexible element having the characteristic of a curtain, this being provided in various ways, some types including the curtain as a part of the upholstery covering, while others employ a member secured to the upholstery, these being well known equivalents and are generally secured to the rim frame assembly formation, the curtain thus being held practically taut when the seat is unoccupied, due

vto the fact that the upholstered portion from which the curtain depends, is held in its upper position by the springs of the spring zone, the curtain-thus tending to limit the expanding limits of the spring formation, the flexibility of the curtain permitting the upholstery to move toward the rim or strip frame and compress the springs when weight is placed upon the seat.

In this particular use the service conditions are rather difficult, due to the fact that automobiles travel at high speed, so that when the wheels meet an obstruction or pass into a dep es on, the jolt set up ecomes taining the serviceability of the seat have caused seat structures of this type to be formed with spring constructions of considerable resistance power 111 order to be able to resist collapse of the seat when'the latter is occupied by a heavy rider. This, however. leads to a ditficulty when the movement of the rider is in the opposite direction, viz, in the direction to relieve the seat from the weight of therider. Inthis latter case, themovement of the rider is sudden,

so that when the upholstery is suddenly relieved of the Weight the full power of the springs is made manifestto shift the upholstery to its upper position very rapidly, thus placing considerable strain upon the curtain which is called upon to stop this eX- pansion movement, and this strain is e pecially present at the lower marginal portion of the curtain.

In order to provide the rigid rim frame, the rim strip is generally made of sheet metal, sheet steel being generally employed,

and owing to the fact that the cross sectional dimensions of the rim' frame must be-such as towithstand the pressures without change of shape, it has been the practice to form the rim strip with a more or less hollow shape cross sectionally, the hollow being filled or partially filled by a strip of light material such, for instance, as fiber. In most of the formations in general use, a face of this fiber strip is exposed and serves as a face to which; the curtain-like structure can be secured, as by tacking; because of' this, this particular filling strip is generally known as the tacking strip of the rim frame. the upholstery securing the lower margin of the curtain to this face by a sufficient number of upholstery tacks to insure that the curtain will not become l ose from the rim,

frame. In other types, the lower margin of the curtain has been secured to the rim frame by being clamped therein or held within suitable channels of the metallic strip prepared to receive it, some forms of this type having the curtain held in position by a *tie corral.

With each of the types,.the question of production of the seat is of great importance, the large quantity production of the many automobile constructions requiring that the seat structures be produced in tremendous numbers, and to meet this condition the question of use of any particular type has become not only dependent upon the serviceability of the seat itself, but also on the ability to produce the seat structure under quantity production conditions in which the number of seats can be produced rapidly, and also to insure the approximate similarity of successive cushion seat structures, due to the fact that the seats are designed to practically fit the particular automobile for which itis designed.

To provide for quantity production con ditions it is the general practice to fabricate the structure gradually by the assembling of parts which havebeen previously properly shaped, and one of the conditions of a quantity production job is the ability to assemble with "rapidity and without necessity for careful operation.

The present invention, designed for quantity roduction conditions pertains more particu arly to the rim frame portion of the scat structure.

This frame is generally of oblong characteristic, forming rather a border for the bottom of the cushion seat assembly and serving as a part of the seat assembly which rests upon the seat support of the automobile. The frame is made up of the rim and tacking strip assembly, and is shaped into the generally oblong form with the channel which receives the lower turn of the springs located on the inner side of the frame, it being the practice to employ a suitable connector where the ends of the strip assembly are brought together, in the production of the frame. The outer springs of the spring zone formation, are then positioned to have the lower turn within the channel after which the Walls of the channel are crimped to retain the spring in position. This assembly is then taken to the upholsterer who applies the upholstery to the assembly, the up 'holsterer properly positioning the curtain with respect to the rim frame.

The present invention is designed to facilitate production and at the same time produce more efiicient and stable production, this being obtained by a novel arrangement of rim frame construction by means of which the frame becomes made up of two portions, one of which is provided and used in the early stage of mounting the spring zone on the rim frame, the other portion being provided and used during the upholstery operation, the assembly of the two parts serving to produce a seat structure of the type in which the curtain is clamped to the rim frame.

By this arrangement, the rim strip assem bly can be produced with a cross section of considerably less dimensions and by methods less complicated than those generally employed, while the portion added by the upholstery can be of simple metallic formation of a form such that it can be placed in position with rapidity, and simply clamped on the assembly at spaced apart points, the result being that the time required for securin the curtain in position is vastly reduced, and the curtain is held more securely than in the type of structures generally employed at the present time.

To these and other ends, therefore, the nature of which will be readily understood as the invention is hereinafter disclosed, said invention consists in the improved construction and combination of parts, hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings in which similar reference characters indicate similar parts in each of the views,

Figure 1 is a section taken through a portion of a spring seat formation, the section ShOWing' one form in which the invention may be employed;

Fig. 2 is a perspective View, partly insection, showing a portion of the rim frame formation shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a view similar in type to Fig. 2 showing a modified form;

Figs. 4 and. 5 are similar views showing other modified forms;

Fig. 6 isa plan view of a portion of the blank used in producing the added member shown in Figs. 1 and 2. and

Fig. 7 is a plan View showing a portion of the blank in producing the added member of Fig. 3.

In the drawings -rz indicates the upholstered portion of the seat assembly having the curtain-like member a-; -b indicates coil springs of the spring zone of the assembly, and c indicates the rim frame of the seat assembly, these being illustrat-ive of general features of all seat assemblies manufactured for automobile service, inanydifferent ways, involving different forms of details, being employed by the manufacturers in supplying the vast number of structures that have been put into use. The present invention does not change these general characteristics, the invention itself pertaining more particularly to the characteristic c which serves to support the lower ends of the outer springs, and form the means for retaining the lower margin of the curtain in proper position.

In each of the several forms of the invention disclosed, the rim frame is made up of practically two members c and c these being independent members and sembled together to produce the complete rim frame. In each instance, the member c is shown as similar, and, in practice. this member may be used with either form ofmember --c the change being in the form of the latter member. 1

Member 0 which can be considered as the rim strip formation, is primarily formed to support the springs, the member being made up of a shaped metallic portion 10 and a filling strip 12, the latter being prefe erably of fiber or other suitable material. Member 10 is preferably made of sheet metal, such as sheet steel, of a light gauge, and is shaped to a cross section approximately that shown'in the drawings, the cross section being taken on a plane that corresponds to a transverse section of a length of the sheet material, the configuration of the cross section being similar throughout the length of the sheet which forms the blank from which the member is made. In shaping the blank, an intermediate portion is bent into an approximate shape to produce an external channel 10*, which in the assembly, is located on the inner side of the rim frame, as shown in Fig. 1, the portions of the'sheet on opposite sides of the channel portion extending in parallel relation, as at 10 and 10 these walls and the channel wall'forming a casing open on the side opposite the channel to permit of the ready insertion of the strip 12, after which the margins 10 and 10 are bent over the strip 12 to practically enclose the latter within the casing thus produced. As will be seen in Fig. 1, the transverse length of wall 10 is less than that of wall 10, marginal wall 1O being bent toward a horizontal plane extending through the bottom of the channel, walls 10 and 10 forming practically a right angle; wall 10 also extends towards such plane, wall 10 however, ex-

tending angular to the plane of wall 10, the

greater transverse length of wall 10 per-' mitting wall 1O to produce a face inclined inwardly toward such horizontal plane, walls 10 and 10 thus including within them an angleof the acute type. W'alls 10 and 10 which are located on the outer part of the rim strip formation, thus form a combined face which is inclined to the vertical for a portion of its distance and extends ver tically throughout the remainder of; the distance; in the complete assembly, this face forms the wall of a cavity within which the lower margin of the curtain is secured.

Member 11 is also formed of a length of sheet material, such as sheet steelof light gauge, for; instance which remains substantially in its fiat condition, being changed from this condition atone of its margins, the latter margin, indicated at 11 being bent into a more or less curved cross :sectional formation, as shown in the various tigin'es, the shape of this portion causing the wall 11 to dilfer in cross sectional configuration from that of wall 10 the two walls 10" and 11 forming when assembled, a cavity or channel open at the top, but with such opening of less lateral dimension than the lateral dimension of the cavity below the opening; in other words, the two walls produce a channel formation which grows larger toward the-bottom of the channel, due to the rounding of the line of bend of member 11 rather than the abrupt bending of. wall 10 of member 10, and the increase in the inclination of wall 11 as compared with that of wall 10*. 1

The lower margin of curtain a is secured in the cavity between walls 10 and 11., the lower margin, as shown in the different figures, being preferably folded inward upon itself to produce a two-ply formation at such margin, and, if desired hav ing an enlarged intermediate portion produced by the insertion of a cord 13 within the. loop contour-produced by the two-ply configuration. As seen, the extreme margin of the curtain forms the inner ply, and is positioned against the walls 10 and 10 wall 11 extending over the outer ply which forms a continuation of the body of the curtain.

It will be understood, that with thelower margin of the curtain folded in this way, if the inner ply be placed in contact with the outer face (walls 10 and 10) of the rim strip formation, and member 11 then be brought :in position to place wall 11 in overlying relation to the loop of the curtain,

the lower margin of the curtain will be held within the cavity, if member 11 is secured in permanent relation to member 10; such securing can be readily had by providing a bent marginal portion whichengages a portion of the wall of channel 10, as shown for instance, in El gs. 1 and 2, this bent portion being indicated at 11". Obviously it is unnecessary that the portion 11 be of any great length in the direction of length of the rim strip formation, since it serves only as a means for holding member 11 to position, and hence it is preferred to make member 11 in the form of a lug that projects from the inner edge of the sheet strip, as indicated for instance, in Fig. 6 which shows a portion of the blank employed in forming member 11 in Figs. 1 and 2, a sufficient numberof these lugs being provided to retain member 11in position. The bending of wall or tongue or projection 11? is provided after the curtain hasbeen placed in position, wall 11" being pressed inward to clamp the curtain, whereupon wall 11 is bent around the wall of the channel, the latter acting somewhat as an anvil in shaping wall 11. It will be understood, of course, that the securing of member 11 would be provided by a suitable tool, which, with the member 11 placed in position, would simply supply pressure on the inner and outer parts of member 11 and thus not only bring all 11 into proper position to clamp the curtain but concurrently act to bend the tongue 11 into its proper position.

As shown in the drawings, the general idea in this respect can be carried out in different ways, for instance, in Fig. 3, tongue 11 is provided by a stamped out portion 11 of the body of the blank (see Fig. 7 this stamped'out part being folded in the proper direction so as to produce the equivalent of the tongue 11 of Fig. 6, so far as providing projecting tongue capable of being' bent on to the rim strip formation is concerned. However, this particular form, which produces the tongue 11 out of the body of the blank rather than a portion projecting from such body, permits the use of a strip of uniform width as a source of supply for member 11 instead of requiring a strip which carries the tongues 11. l v ith tongue 11 bent outward, as shown, to under- I lie a portion of the body wall of member 11,

the portion of the tongue which projects beyond the edge of such wall becomes the substantial equivalent of tongue 11'.

As shown in Fig. 4, the tongue need not be an integral part of the blank of member 11, but may be simply a small strip welded or otherwise secured to the blank, to provide the projecting tongue formation, the strip being indicated at 11.

As shown in Fig. 5, it is evident that the part which produces the action of tongue 11 need not be secured to member 11, but may be in the form of a clip 1 1, which has a. bent end portion 14 adapted to overlie the wall 11*, and the opposite end portion 1 1 being adapted to be manipulated in the same manner as tongue 1.1 and serving the same purpose as such tongue in retaining member 11 in position.

It will be understood, of course, that member 11 is preferably shaped with wall 11 in advance of being applied, the tongue 11 remaining flat for manipulation during the applying operation. As will be 11I1(l1 stood, member 11 may be of a length such as to extend throughout the outer periphery of the rim strip formation, in which case, the strip may be bent to round the corners of the rim frame as member 11 is being applied or the bending may be provided in advance of application, the opposing ends of the strip being, of course, free from connection so that it would be possible to spring the shaped member open sufficient to permit three sides of such frame may be found desirable.

As will be seen, the arrangement provides for a number of very important advantages over the structures in general use.

For instance, the securingof the lower margin of the curtain within a cavity instead of being secured by tacking etc, permits the margins of member 10 to be brought close together, since there is no need for a tacking zone. Hence, the vertical dimension of the rim strip formation can be comparatively small, )ermitting' walls 10 and 10 to extend in parallelism with the spacing between them comparatively short, the channel possibly having a slig'htly'dii' l'erent configuration than that commonly employed, but which is of a configuration such as will per it the crimping of the walls of the channel over the lower turn of the spring as at present. Consequently, the blank from which member 10 is formed can be of materially less width than that required for the general practice at present, In opof the rim frame is provided, eliminating any tendency of a deforming action on the rim frame, such as is set up when the part 7 of the rim frame which corresponds to wall 10 extends inclined to the horizontal, since in such inclined formation,,the support is confined to practically a single line spaced from the point of contact of spring and bottom of the channel. In addition, the cross sectional shape of member 10 is of simple desi n and readily fashioned by machine, so that the rim strip formation can be made at a considerably reduced cost, especially over those formations which are designed to provide a curtain receiving cavity as an integral structure of a meml'ier, such as member 10. Member 11is readily manufactured, and as will be understood, provides a change in the upholstery operation such as to greatly decrease the amount of time required in securing the margin of the curtain. This will be understood from the fact that member 11 can be quickly posi tioned and clamped by the bending of tongues 11 etc, thus eliminating the necessity for attempting to tack the margin, an operation which requires not only proper stretching of the curtain, but the driving of a large number of tacks in order that the curtain may be securely held. And Where the comparison is with the curtain clamping type of structures, the change produced by the present invention greatly simplifies the operation for the reason that there is no requirement of an attempt to force the curtain material into a fixed cavity with the constant requirement of properly positioning the curtain within the cavity to prevent the formation of wrinkles etc. On the contrary, the upholstery in practicing the pres ent invention is simply required to position the lower margin of the curtain on to the rim strip tacea simple operation quickly performedafter which the cavity is completed by the member 11, the latter clamping the curtain by the bending of the tongues 11 etc., that are employed.

Other advantages will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains.

While I have herein shown and described several ways in which the invention may be carried into eiiect, it will be readily understood that changes or modifications therein may be found desirable or essential in meeting the exigencies of use, and I desire to be understood as reserving the right to make any and all such changes and modifications as may be found desirable or essential in so far as the same may fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as expressed in the accompanying claims, when broadly construed.

What I claim is 1. In a rim frame assembly for upholstery spring constructions, an element of sheet metal having a shaped cross-section in which an intermediate portion is of channel formation with the channel located between a pair of parallel walls forming the upper and lower faces of the element, the margins of such walls being bent inwardly toward a medial plane parallel to such walls to secure a filling strip between such margins and the bottom of the channel, the upper and lower margins extending on diii'erent planes relative to a vertical plane through the filling strip to form a face extending on different planes, the lower margin projecting outward beyond the upper margin, a sheet metal element having a cross section to produce a portion underlying and in contact with the bottom wall of the first element and a portion adapted to overlie the lower margin of the first element in spaced relation to produce with such margin a curtam-margin receiving cavity, the spacing being determined by the dimensions and form of the curtain margin, and means for securing the elements together to maintain the cavity dimensions.

An assembly as in claim 1, characterized in that the means is in the form of a plurality of members spaced apart in the direction of length of the frame and bent into overlying relation with a Wall of the channel to cooperate therewith in securing the elements together. i

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

DOUGLAS S. STILES. 

